Making Natural Products in the Lab

The COP30 climate summit is taking place in the Brazilian city of Belém, a gateway to the Amazon rainforest, which continues to face widespread deforestation. We all know that our climate is changing and that we are largely responsible for this, but we can’t tackle the problem un ...  Show more

Imagine if you were listening to an opera or a Taylor Swift concert, and as the lights in the auditorium dimmed, the music was accompanied by a rainbow of colours only you could see. Perhaps while listening to your friends talking, you simultaneously experience a smorgasbord of t ...  Show more

PFAS chemicals, also known as forever chemicals, don’t break down in the environment. They can accumulate in the body and are found to have an array of harmful effects on human health. A major mapping project has revealed worryingly high levels of PFAS across thousands of sites i ...  Show more

The Royal Society is the oldest scientific academy in the world. Since being established in 1660, it has painstakingly archived thousands of papers, letters, manuscripts and illustrations from some of science’s most enquiring minds.In this episode, Victoria Gill takes a trip to t ...  Show more

For the scientific community, the Nobel Prize announcements are an important part of the yearly science calendar. The award is one of the most widely celebrated and gives us a moment to reflect on some of the leading scientific work taking place around the world. This year’s winn ...  Show more

White phosphorous is an incendiary material and if it were to be used in any built-up civilian areas, the practice would violate international law. We find out what makes white phosphorus so dangerous, and we ask how easy is it to identify? Andrea Sella, professor of chemistry at ...  Show more